Looking At Life

In our Manzanita winter I’ve seen a lot of driftwood. But never one like this. This is the Rembrandt of rubbish. This should be in a gallery somewhere. The picture doesn’t do it justice, but, trust me, it’s remarkable. Those of us who feed on symbolism will spend hours deciphering the curves and edges until, finally, we see the hidden jewel. Maybe it’s a face or an animal, but somewhere in that ocean art is a feature or figure waiting to be unveiled. My suggestion this morning is that it’s better to use a telescope than a microscope when looking for meaning, symbol or metaphor. And I would further suggest that the same idea works in life generally. Better to take a step or two back to gain the full perspective, the comprehensive view, rather than viewing everything and everybody under the microscope of precision and perfection. Life tends to narrow dramatically when we live microscopically. Faith is an act of trust in the midst of unknowing. Unlike the sciences, faith doesn’t respond well to severe scrutiny. Faith, developed through rigid analysis, turns out to be rigid. Compassion suffers when the calculations of the length of Noah’s ark become more important than giving a cup of cold water in the spirit of Christ.

Most of the time life is better viewed at arm’s length rather than through the lens of a magnifying glass. And for me, the great irony is that the more I stand back from the driftwood, the closer I get to its profound beauty. The more I look at life in its fullness, not its narrowness, the more I understand myself and you as my neighbor. And, the more I look at life comprehensively the closer I come to the mind and the heart of Christ. Consider the lilies of the field, not the fourth petal of the third plant in row seventeen.